Why should I Not Eat Grains? The Research it yourself version…

By chef, on September 25th, 2011

Please forgive the VERY pedestrian descriptions and tone here, we get nerdy with it some other time. The most profound, immediate issue is the relationship between grains and chronic inflammation of the digestive tract.

Lectins and glutens are your first pubmed and google scholar search terms. The crux of the biscuit is that they are proteins found in grains, legumes, and dairy and meat that are fed with grains (it’s the fat of the grain fed animal that is the bitch, for the most part). The most commonly referenced grain lectin is gluten, but its far from the only bitch on the block, and it’s not just wheat that causes the issue, there are nasty lectins in party-grains like groats, oats and quinoa as well, and many more. Minute quantities of Lectins serve some useful work in animals, but foods chock full o’ lectins will tear you up, even in small portions, even once in a great while.

Lectins simply do not break down easily, we just dont have the right acids and enzymes needed to get the job done as some of our cousins in the animal kingdom. These lectins sail downstream through your GI Tract for the most part unscathed, wreaking havoc on intestinal villi, flogging cells and launching a domino effect that causes severely degraded function shortly followed by necropathy. The savagery that goes on in your gut with all this slashing and burning going on leads to Leaky Gut Syndrome (search please), or more directly holes in your intestinal lining that allow bacteria, protein solids and the crumbs and dustbunnies of your food bolus to enter your bloodstream – that’s bad. Very. No good can come from that.

The body will not simply allow foreign substances to roam around where they dont belong and your immune system automatically (keep that word in mind, it’ll be back) kicks in to save you from the flotsam and jetsam washing around in your blood stream. Welcome to the vast and truly destructive world of auto-immune disorders, too heinous to list here, so once again do some research on celiac and the horrors therein. We ALL suffer from one level of gluten/lectin intolerance, some goes mostly under the radar until the damn bursts, some sound off like klaxons going off in a tin closet.

Pick a number, 10%? 20%? of your immune systems capacity being, day in and day out, used to combat issues that are caused by what you can choose not to eat by saying, ‘No thanks.’

You are, in effect, walking around every day chronically ill and getting worse. I have heard the comment (more times than i can count) ‘I had no idea how sick I was until i wasnt sick anymore.’ That chronically compromised immune system sets you up for more nasties: could your body fend off your allergies if it had that 20% of wasted ammo back again? How about skin issues like Acne or dandruff? How about irritable bowel syndrome? Cold and flu? Cancer? seriously. I have a list of etceteras that could fill a shoe box.

The facts are not just gained from some obscure fossil record of the bones of Pre-agricultural revolution (read: pre-graineating) peoples, although there is compelling evidence therein. We have oodles of data from present day hunter-gatherer tribes that eat NO grains whatsoever and have profoundly more benign health issues than we-who-know-whole grains-are-good folks. Take into consideration the lack of modern medcare and the potentials of infant death form birth complications, many ‘primitive’ tribes are just plain healthier. They eat lots of saturated fats, lots of animal product, no refrideration, no sense of a clean cooking or eating environment, some drink alchohol, but the amount of type 2 diabetes is statistically a non issue. Heart disease? Nope, dont think so. Obesity? almost non existent. Are there a profound number of societal issues that promote their ‘shockingly’ good health? Sure, of course. But it would be ignorance to conclude that they are off the charts of the health-sickness continuum markers simply by virtue of having more free time and lots of sex. hmmmm…. Why do I live here, again?

The fact of the matter is, no matter what anyone says, there is no ‘proof’ in dietary science. I cannot and will never say that ‘this’ proves ‘that’ in diet. I will, however, sing from the highest balcony that REMOVING GRAINS ALLEVIATES ALL OR MOST OF THESE DISEASE FACTORS. No, that is in no way, shape or form ‘proof’, but it works pretty good for someone who is sick who wants to no longer be sick. Pretty much.

Hope that wasnt too simplistic. To those of you who want this cocktail served neat, no water to dilute the flava, please, dont ask me to dig up studies. Find the terms that spike your own inner clinician and hit the search trail on pubmed and google scholar.

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1 comment to Why should I Not Eat Grains? The Research it yourself version…

After a cancer (Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma) diagnosis and the subsequent failure of the medical community (even MD Anderson) to deliver adequate help, I have discovered through research and experimentation that going grain free is the solution to my suffering. My own life style change of going grain free has proven that the human body is not happy trying to treat grains as food. Also this is clear to me through the lives of everyone in my family, all of whom were plagued with various diseases such as IBS, Lupus, arthritis, bad allergies with chronic sinus infections, asthma, skin conditions/diseases, brain fog, fatigue, and more. They are all grain-free and are enjoying health for the first time in years.
So I’m very familiar with gluten but need to acquaint myself with the definition of the word Lectins.
And, I agree that everyone eating grains the way most Americans do suffers from inflammation and disease, but many do not yet realize it. Thank you for hitting the nail(s) on the head with your article.